with the way things work in washington, can anything be done before year's end? white house correspondent brianna keilar following this. what is the latest? >> reporter: it's honestly very unclear, drew, if something is going to happen. obviously we will see some actions to try to avert the fiscal cliff. president obama cutting his vacation in hawaii almost two weeks short to head back as the senate and the house reconvene and we are looking to the senate, where senate majority leader harry reid will be trying to put together a bill that can get some republican support in the senate but also and more importantly some republican support in the house, where obviously we saw negotiations fall apart with president obama last week, so we're waiting for this proposal to see kind of what shape it takes. the white house wants those bush era tax cuts on the first quarter million dollars of earnings to be preserved, that's what the white house has been pushing. it's unclear if that is going to be the proposal that harry reid puts out, if maybe it will go higher in order to